The first woman elected as U.S. Senator from her state pens a lovely
children's book with her daughter about the Suffrage movement to
celebrate the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Camilla's class trip to the history museum proved to be both instructive
and enlightening when Camilla is transported back to August 18, 1920.
That's when women achieved the right to vote with the "Yes" vote from
Harry T. Burn, a young legislature from East Tennessee whose mother
encouraged him to do the right thing by breaking the 48-48 tie in the
Tennessee House of Representatives. Until that day, women did not have
the same rights as men.
Harry T. Burn's mother wrote, "Hurrah, and vote for suffrage! Don't keep
them in doubt. I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter.
I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything
yet." She ended her letter with a rousing endorsement of the great
suffragist leader Carrie Chapman Catt, asking her son to "...be a good
boy and help Mrs. Catt put the 'rat' in ratification."
Join Camilla as she learns the exciting (and controversial!) history of
women gaining the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.